Camera movement and editing: blog tasks

 1) Pick three aspects of camera movement in the Minority Report clip. Identify the type of camera movement and write about why the director chose to use that camera movement in the scene and what effect it has on the audience.

1- Handheld, The director must've chosen this type of camera movement to create a sense of realism and urgency as it is used throughout most of the scenes. This affects the audience by making them feel as if they are witnessing this whole scene. It makes the scene appear more lively in a way.

2- Track/Dolly, The director had chosen this type of camera movement to somewhat smoothly move towards the newspaper. as if it was following a persons point of view who payed some attention toward the newspaper that had the protagonist's face on it which then cut to the guy holding the newspaper and then cuts to the protagonist. This affects the audience by creating some tension and perhaps also lead a bit of narration to the story of the film, making the watchers interested on what happens next.

3-Crane, The director used this to introduce the police in the scene, the protagonists outnumbered by a group of police men in jetpacks(High angled). For the audience, this can make them feel nervous, creates a feeling of hopelessness for the protagonist and creates a sense of suspense in a way.

2) Pick two aspects of editing in the Minority Report clip and write about what effect it has on the audience.

There are many Cuts that are very commonly used like Straight cuts and jump cuts. The excessive and past paced 

 film transitions (Cuts) creates a sense of urgency and may add some confusion to the audience as the scene continuously cuts to other angles of that scene as the actions used for the characters blend into each other. This is also a way to create excitement in a scene as it suggests action and excitement.

3) Finally, revise last week's work on camerawork by picking out two shots or camera angles in the clip that communicate meaning to the audience.

Uses of high angle long shots and establishing shots as the characters are high up on the buildings or at risk of falling can create a sense of inferiority and appear small, also show risks and how steep and dangerous the fall is.

This communicates to the audience that there are risks taken to escape the police and the foreshadowing of the near death scenes that happens a little bit later.

There was a scene where the head and shoulders of the protagonist was shown in a medium shot, The focus on his face showed seriousness and how it looked exactly in the newspaper. This creates tension and suspense to the audience as they are being introduced to the character. to which they can infer he is a criminal and is on the wanted list.

Extension task

Linked above is a video from Studio Binder on camera movements - read their webpage on this topic and you'll learn about this in even more detail.

You can then look at their section on editing.